In honor of this annual celebration of National Wildlife Federation’s 40-year-old Certified Wildlife Habitat program, I brought some “backyard wildlife” on my Today Show segment this week. But these animals are definitely NOT the songbirds and butterflies that typically show up in a wildlife-friendly garden.

Instead, I brought species that might surprise you if you spotted them in your garden. My goal was to let folks know that species other than birds and butterflies need our help and can benefit from wildlife-friendly gardens, and also to point out what to do to avoid conflict with some of these species.

I mean, groundhogs, alligators and beavers aren’t necessarily the most welcome species in the garden. But two other predators I featured in the segment definitely are species you want around.

The card commemorates Game 4 of the National League Division Series, when a bushy-tailed rodent scampered in front of the hitter, Cardinals’ utilityman Skip Schumaker, just before a pitch. Umpire Angel Hernandez called it a ball, and Phillies pitcher Roy Oswalt and manager Charlie Manuel argued, because everyone knows that a squirrel on the field means an automatic timeout, right?

Anyway, the so-called ‘Rally Squirrel’ became a folk hero in St. Louis (Twitter account here; 27,000 followers) and the most famous baseball-adjacent small mammal since David Eckstein.

Slow, slugging former Senators’ great supposedly got this nickname as a basketball player in high school because he “(hung) around the basket like a squirrel around a tree.” Though a citation eludes me, I believe he supped on nuts, seeds and cones throughout the spring as well, hoarding and burying food so that he might revisit his caches years later.

Early 20th century Cubs’ pitcher got this nickname because he was an agriculture student. Also: had a dense grey undercoat and digging claws. Alas, groundhogs may now be emerging earlier due to global warming, to their detriment—even worse than if Orval had reported for Spring Training in the middle of a Chicago blizzard (tip goes to Miles Grant for that tidbit as well as parts of this post).

Old timer was almost my height/weight twin, and nobody knows what made him muskrat-like. Perhaps his well-adapted swimming tail. Though even that would probably not have helped him escape calamities like the Kalamazoo River oil spill.

7) Don Zimmer, ‘The Gerbil’

Honorable mentions go to to ‘Bunny’ Anthony Brief and Rabbit Maranville since rabbits aren’t true rodents but are often confused as such and often referred to together as members of the same ‘superclass.’

To learn more about squirrels, check out this blog post or the red squirrel page in our Wildlife Library. You can find tips for sending your kids to ‘Squirrel School’ at Big Backyard.

Did I miss anyone? Tweet which of these baseball rodents (including Rally Squirrel) is your favorite using the hashtag #baseballrodents.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/finally-a-squirrel-gets-its-own-baseball-card-plus-top-7-rodents-in-baseball-history/feed/0St*ff Groundhogs Sayhttp://blog.nwf.org/2012/01/stff-groundhogs-say/
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/01/stff-groundhogs-say/#commentsSat, 28 Jan 2012 00:10:01 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=43010Read more >]]>With Groundhog Day just around the corner, we wanted to take a moment to look at the world from the critter’s point of view. So, if groundhogs could actually talk, what might they say? This video poses one possibility.

Hmmm…I’d like to think that groundhogs wouldn’t be that annoying. Here’s what I believe they’d say:

Please don’t ask me how much wood I chuck.” – Groundhogs are also known as woodchucks. However, “woodchuck” comes from an Algonquian name for the animal, wuchak. They don’t actually toss wood.

“How you doin’?” – Contrary to popular belief, when male groundhogs emerge in February after their three-month-long hibernation, they aren’t checking on the timing of spring. Nope. They’re looking for some love.

“I’m cool as a cucumber.” – While hibernating, a woodchuck’s body temperature can drop from about 99 degrees to as low as 37. (Humans go into mild hypothermia when their body temperature drops a mere 3 degrees, lose consciousness at 82 degrees and face death below 70 degrees.)

“Where’s the salad bar?”- During warm seasons, a groundhog may pack in more than a pound of vegetation at one sitting, which is much like a 150-pound man scarfing down a 15-pound steak.

Groundhog enjoying my container garden

“I can dig it.”- On average, the animal will remove a remarkable 700 pounds of soil to make a burrow. The burrow is pretty extensive and may have several rooms, one to three openings and span a total of 25 to 35 feet.

“Michael Phelps has nothing on me.” – In addition to being great at burrowing, groundhogs are stellar swimmers. They’re also expert tree climbers, especially when chased.

Want to Dig Deeper?

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2012/01/stff-groundhogs-say/feed/3Do Woodchucks Need Permission Slips?http://blog.nwf.org/2010/12/do-woodchucks-need-permission-slips/
http://blog.nwf.org/2010/12/do-woodchucks-need-permission-slips/#commentsMon, 06 Dec 2010 19:50:31 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise/?p=9436Read more >]]>I was visiting my aunt in Massachusetts this summer when I noticed this woodchuck ambling through her backyard. My aunt is a big bird-watcher & I pointed out the woodchuck, thinking it was a good example of what a wildlife-friendly yard she’s maintained.

Instead, the conversation went something like this:

ME: Hey, a woodchuck!

AUNT: I have to call the pest-control guy to take care of that.

ME: Why?

AUNT: (silence)

ME: Is it doing any damage to your yard?

AUNT: Well, no. But he shouldn’t be out there.

I’m sure my aunt had no intention of paying someone her hard-earned money to go after this woodchuck (this is a woman who has never thrown out a Thanksgiving leftover in her life). It was more a reflex, like she was embarrassed someone would see she’d allowed this pest to hang out in her yard.

I’m not a wildlife expert & I’m sure a woodchuck could be a nuisance by … I don’t know, chucking all your wood. But I always find it interesting that, even among nature lovers, animals who don’t have the homeowner’s explicit permission to enter their yard may be seen as a pest. Just ask any backyard birder how they feel about squirrels at their bird-feeders!